Editing Mastodon (section)

==== Big Bone Lick ====
[[File:Proboscidean femurs 1764.png|thumb|Engravings of the femurs of an unspecified extant elephant species (top), ''M.&nbsp;americanum'' (middle), and a "Siberian" mammoth (bottom), 1764]]
In 1739, a French military expedition under the command of [[Charles III Le Moyne]] (known also as "Longueil") explored the locality of "[[Big Bone Lick State Park|Big Bone Lick]]" (located in what is now the US state of [[Kentucky]]) and gathered fossil bones and teeth there.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Storrs |first=Glenn W. |year=2019 |title=Big Bone Lick |journal=Ohio Valley History |volume=19 |number=3 |pages=82–90 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/734797}}</ref> The French naturalist [[Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton]] examined the fossil collection brought by Longueuil and compared it with specimens of extant [[elephant]]s and Siberian [[mammoth]]s in 1762. Daubenton said that the bones were discovered by Native Americans (probably [[Abenaki]] hunter-warriors). He came to the conclusion that the femur and tusk belonged to an elephant while the [[molar (tooth)|molars]] (or cheek teeth) came from a separate giant [[hippopotamus]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Daubenton|first=Louis Jean-Marie|year=1764|title=Mémoire sur des os et des dents remarquables par leur gradeur|journal=Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, Année MDCCLXII, avec les Mémoires de Mathématiques & de Physique, pour la même année, 1762|pages=206–229|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rT1RAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA206}}</ref><ref name="hedeen">{{cite book|last=Hedeen|first=Stanley|year=2008|title=Big Bone Lick: The Cradle of American Paleontology |chapter=Chapter&nbsp;4: Gathering the bones |publisher=University Press of Kentucky|pages=31–44}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Barnett|first=Lydia|year=2019|title=Showing and hiding: The flickering visibility of earth workers in the archives of earth science|journal=History of Science|volume=58|issue=3|pages=245–274 |doi=10.1177/0073275319874982|pmid=31640428 }}</ref>

In [[Shawnee]] tradition, the proboscideans roamed in herds and were hunted by giants, who both eventually died out. The accounts told by the Shawnee individuals in 1762 are the oldest known documented interpretations of the "[[Ohio]]" fossils, although the traditions may have had been told for generations.<ref name="monster3">{{cite book |last=Semonin |first=Paul |year=2000 |title=American Monster: How the nation's first prehistoric creature became a symbol of national identity |chapter=Chapter&nbsp;4: Big Bone Lick |publisher=NYU Press |pages=84–110 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mayor |first=Adrienne |year=2005 |title=Fossil Legends of the First Americans |chapter=Chapter&nbsp;1: The northeast: Giants, great bears, and grandfather of the buffalo |publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=32–72}}</ref>

In 1767, [[Peter Collinson (botanist)|Peter Collinson]] credited Irish trader [[George Croghan]] for having sent him and [[Benjamin Franklin]] fossil evidence of the mysterious proboscideans, using them for his studies. He concluded that the peculiar grinders (the molars) were built for herbivorous diets of branches of trees and shrubs as well as other vegetation, a view later followed by Franklin.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Daiutolo |first=Robert, Jr. |date=October 2015 |title=George Croghan: The life of a conqueror |degree=Ph.D. |series=Graduate Program in History |publisher=[[Rutgers University]] |place=New Brunswick–Piscataway, NJ |url=https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/48442/PDF/1/play/ }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Collinson |first=Peter |year=1767 |title=XLVII.&nbsp;Sequel to the foregoing account of the large fossil teeth |journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London]] |volume=57 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/208064#page/534/mode/1up}}</ref>

In 1768, Scottish anatomist [[William Hunter (anatomist)|William Hunter]] recorded that he and his brother [[John Hunter (surgeon)|John Hunter]] observed that the teeth were not like those of modern elephants. He determined that the "grinders" from Ohio were of a carnivorous animal but believed that the tusks belonged to the same animal. After examining fossils from Franklin and Lord Shelburne, Hunter was convinced that the "''pseudo-elephant''", or "''animal incognitum''" (shortened as "''incognitum''"), was an animal species separate from elephants that might have also been the same as the proboscideans found in Siberia. He concluded his article with the opinion that although regrettable to philosophers, humanity should be thankful to heaven that the animal, if truly carnivorous, was extinct.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hunter |first=William |year=1768 |title=V.&nbsp;Observations on the bones, commonly supposed to be elephants bones, which have been found near the river Ohio in America |journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London]] |volume=58 |pages=34–45 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/207945#page/60/mode/1up }}</ref>